Indian Navy’s INS Trishul thwarts pirate attack on Indian ship in Gulf of Aden

The stealth Indian Navy frigate INS Trishul thwarted a piracy attempt on an Indian merchant vessel, Jag Amar, in a swift action in the Gulf of Aden at about 12.30 pm today.

The 4,000-tonne INS Trishul swung into action after receiving the distress call from Indian-flagged cargo ship Jag Amar, and deployed an armed helicopter and marine commandos.

The merchant vessel had 26 Indians on board.

The operation saw the marine commandos boarding Jag Amar to disarm the around dozen pirates and seize one AK-47, with 27 rounds in a magazine, and other equipment from them.

"INS Trishul thwarts piracy attempt on Indian ship MV Jag Amar at 1230 hrs this noon in the Gulf of Aden," Navy's spokesperson Captain DK Sharma said in a tweet.

The details of the anti-piracy operation were yet awaited.

In May, INS Sharda, deployed for anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, rescued a Liberian merchant vessel Lord Mountbatten from a pirate attack.

In April, INS Mumbai, Tarkash, Trishul and Aditya, which were passing through the Gulf of Aden on way to deployment to the Mediterranean sea, had saved another merchant ship MV OS 35 from pirates.

Piracy continues to be rampant off the east coast of Africa, with pirates often venturing deep into the Arabian Sea to hunt for targets like merchant vessels and oil tankers, despite international efforts to curb the menace. India, like some other countries, has been deploying warships in the Gulf of Aden for anti-piracy patrols continuously since 2008 to safely escort merchant ships of different nationalities through the troubled waters.